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Susan SmithSusan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ newsletters and blogs. She writes on a number of topics, including but not limited to geospatial, architecture, engineering and construction. As many technologies evolve and occasionally merge, Susan finds herself uniquely situated to be able to cover diverse topics with facility. « Less

Susan SmithSusan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More »

Deltek Acquires Union Square

Patrick Smith, SVP of Marketing at Deltek and Brian LaMee, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Deltek spoke with AECCafe about Deltek’s acquisition of information management and collaboration software company Union Square.

Landing Page: Intranet style entry point to the system providing business and project specific news & information

According to company materials, Union Square offers project information and collaboration software built for the unique needs of the AEC industry. This acquisition broadens and deepens Deltek’s portfolio of solutions for the AEC industry by enabling companies to organize and leverage a complete set of information around each project – ensuring that project teams can better collaborate on critical project data to successfully manage projects for clients.

Based in Nottingham, England, Union Square empowers more than 450 firms in 15 countries to better manage and collaborate on vital project information, including contacts, emails, drawings and documents.

Deltek is a global ERP market leader in the AEC industry, and works with more than 12,000 AEC firms of all sizes around the world.

Home Page: One central hub for the project team to access all correspondence, drawings, financial

What exactly does Union Square bring to the table for Deltek?

Deltek has always been extremely successful delivering the enterprise software systems that AEC firms need to run their businesses better. We uniquely power the project lifecycle for AEC firms – from winning new business and developing talent, to managing projects on time and on budget and running the back-office.

Union Square provides information management and collaboration software designed to help AEC firms capture, store and access critical firm-wide and project information. Businesses need to organize huge volumes of files across all aspects of their organization, many using departmental systems which causes lots of key information to get replicated in multiple locations. Union Square helps manage vital project information like emails, correspondence, drawings, contracts, photos and more. And, beyond the project, it helps manage critical firm-wide information like HR, marketing, accounting, legal, QA/QC files – all of this in one central location. By adding Union Square’s capabilities to Deltek’s project lifecycle management solutions, AEC companies now have the organization, visibility and project intelligence to run their businesses smarter.

All documents, emails and PDF’s are indexed and text searchable through the powerful check-in/out

What will a sample workflow look like with Union Square and Deltek, as opposed to what the usual Deltek workflow would be?

Here is a good example. Oftentimes, projects have multiple components and blended payment terms – for example, a portion of a project could be time and expense, a portion could be fixed fee, and another piece could be based on specific milestones achieved. A project manager needs to stay on top of all of the contingencies around a project contract to make sure his company gets paid on time. With Union Square and Deltek, you can embed the contract right into the project manager’s view within Deltek’s project ERP systems so the project manager is always aware of the specifics of a contract. Gone are the days of spending time searching the file room for contract terms.

Most significant providers of BIM have solutions that manage all the emails, documents, drawings etc. that travel along with every project, so what is different about what Union Square offers?

Union Square is different than solutions offered by many BIM vendors in two primary ways. First, Union Square offers a much broader view of an organization and all the assets required to not only deliver projects but also run the company holistically. Union Square is all about organizing your business and every aspect of it – Union Square does that by applying its world class Document Management System across all part of the business, not just within the project delivery domain.

Secondly, Union Square offers more in regards to supporting project delivery from start to finish. From what it takes to win the work all the way through project close out (and sometimes beyond) Union Square becomes an integral part of all the involved processes and workflow. With its vast functional prowess that includes Drawing Lifecycle Management, mobile contract administration offering and integral workflow support Union Square becomes the operational foundation for an organization enabling them to deliver projects more efficiently and with less risk.

Will the Union Square acquisition be the basis of a new product or service offered by Deltek?

Union Square will still be sold as a standalone solution, and it will also be integrated with Deltek’s project ERP solutions used by 12,000+ AEC firms worldwide. We will continue to add capabilities to Union Square software as well to accelerate the solution roadmap even more than before.

What will make the process of unifying project transactions and information faster with the addition of Union Square?

Having the context (delivered by Deltek’s applications) and the content through rich project information (delivered by Union Square’s software) together within the same system will make business processes run even faster because it empowers the executive, the business developer, the project manager, the resource manager etc. with the information they need to make decisions, understand status updates, resolve problems, and more. That’s the power of the combination.